Why is the Bible Boring to Me?
Here’s one a lot of people deal with. “The Bible is boring and hard to understand, that’s why I don’t really read it. It’s so difficult to get into.”
In my first year of college, I took a class called, New Testament History with Special Emphasis on Jesus and Paul. You’d think this was at a Christian institution, but it was actually a state university. The class was in the history department, but I was a fairly young Christian and wanted whatever “Bible” class I could get into. Later, based on the leading of the Holy Spirit, I transferred to a Christian university, where I met my lovely bride, and the Lord also greatly changed my life.
But back to the class. It wasn’t a class designed to grow your Christian faith; it was a history class. The professor wasn’t a believer, he was a history teacher. But he also wasn’t antagonistic towards Christians, and many took his class. In it I learned much history from the New Testament era, and a lot about the lives of Jesus and Paul. If you’re a history buff (and I am) it was a great class. But if you weren’t a history buff and just took it for the required history credit, I suppose it could have been rather dull.
How Not TO Read the Bible
One reason the Bible is not interesting to us is because we’re reading it wrong. The Bible is filled with history, but it’s not a history book. The Bible contains a lot of poetry, but it’s not a poetry book. The Bible contains a lot of ancient religious law, but it’s not a law book. The Bible includes a lot of allegory and many parables, but it’s not a fiction book. When we read the Bible as if it were any of these, or any combination of them, we won’t get what God wants us to get out of the Bible.
The Bible isn’t like any other book ever recorded. As you probably know, it’s a collection of 66 total “books”. Some are long, some are short, in fact, both 2 John and 3 John have fewer than three hundred words each, and at this point in the blog post we already have more words than either one.
But the uniqueness of the Bible isn’t in the fact that it’s a collection of books. There are many collections of short stories and books. The uniqueness isn’t even in that it’s ancient, many ancient texts have survived for thousands of years.
If we read the Bible as an ancient collection of history, poetry, or any other literary genre it could indeed be interpreted as boring. Well, some stories are wild, like the children of Israel walking through the Red Sea on dry land, Balaam’s talking donkey, or Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal. Not to mention all the miracles in the New Testament. But even those, if you don’t believe in the God of miracles, could be seen as fanciful stories with no application to real life.
The first reason the Bible is boring to you is this: we are reading it for the wrong reasons. When we read the Bible as history or poetry, and we aren’t interested in history or poetry, we are disengaged. When we read the Bible out of obligation, with some sense that God will be angry or disappointed if we don’t read the Bible, then we won’t enjoy it.
The Flashiness of Popular Media
Here is another reason the Bible may seem boring. It’s a book.
A few days ago, we went to see the latest superhero movie. It was the usual premise; a group of superheroes went up against a villain. The superheroes eventually defeated the villain, but at the end there was a teaser of an even worse group of villains that superheroes will have to deal with later.
Of course, it was more exciting than that. The movie was filled with humor, explosions, close calls, loss of some “good” characters, and almost constant edge-of-your-seat excitement. The sweeping musical score added to the emotional thrill ride. In short, the movie was designed in every way to keep you always guessing and fully engaged.
That’s the method of all popular media. Music, television shows, movies, webinars, etc. are created in ways to occupy the mind and manipulate the emotions. I’m not saying this is always a bad thing, the same techniques are often used in Christian media.
Here is the problem. When our minds are constantly trained to look for something thrilling, filled with emotional highs and lows, and not requiring us to use our imaginations at all, a book, almost any book, can be terribly boring. It’s the same problem with social media, but in an even more insidious manner, because we hold the social media in our hands and can get emotionally engaged anytime, 24 hours per day. The flashiness of all types of media causes our imaginations to wither, pushing us to always seek the next emotional high from some electronic source.
How is a book supposed to compete with that?
Making the Bible Your (Un)Guilty Pleasure
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “guilty pleasure.” Wikipedia defines it as “something, such as a film, a television program, a piece of music, or an activity, that one enjoys despite understanding that it is not generally held in high regard, or is seen as unusual or weird.”
Most people have at least one guilty pleasure. I’ll tell you one of mine. I still laugh at a lot of music by "Weird Al" Yankovic. I’ve enjoyed his stuff since the 1980s. You might appreciate his classic White and Nerdy from 2006. Or not. He’s an acquired taste.😊 Ok, back to the Bible.
How do you make it so you WANT to read the Bible? I’m going to give you just two suggestions.
1) Turn Down Other Media
Here’s something I’ve learned. The appetites you feed grow. If you eat a lot of sugary food, you’ll desire more sugary food. If you drink soft drinks, you’ll desire more soft drinks. But if you start eating or drinking healthier options you’ll start to crave those more. This principle applies in all of our habits, food, exercise, media, etc.
Therefore, if we stop watching so much emotionally charged media, including the news, we will crave it less. And if we replace it with watching and reading uplifting content, we’ll begin to crave that more. One warning here. Just because it says “Christian” or comes from a Christian artist does not mean it’s good for your spiritual growth. There are definitely “Christian” songs, books, and other media that should be avoided. Maybe I could do a post on that sometime. 😊
Now, of course, THE best media source for uplifting content is always the Bible. Before any other shows, movies, songs, or books, the Bible reigns supreme.
So the first tip is this, give your emotions a break from all the anxiety inducing media. Come down from the addictive high generated by all the distracting and eventually destructive content being produced by the world. It’s time to let the Book of books be your (un)guilty pleasure.
2) Read the Bible With the right intention
I shared earlier in this post that we read the Bible for many wrong reasons. Here is the right reason, and the also right way, to read the Bible.
Read the Bible to seek God.
The Bible isn’t just a collection of books. It is a place where God will reveal Himself to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
-Jeremiah 29:13 NIV
The Spirit of God meets you in the pages of His Word. Can He do so if you’re reading the Bible as history or poetry or for another purpose? Of course, because nothing is impossible for God. But when you set aside time and come to the Bible with the full intention of encountering the living God, you open your spirit to all that He wants to share with you. Speaking of living, the words in the Bible are not mere words as in other books, no! These are the living words of God!
God's word is alive and powerful! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts.
-Hebrews 4:12 CEV
If you truly want to desire to open God’s word every day, then come to it expecting God to move in your heart! Once you’ve felt the Word come alive in you by the power of the Holy Spirit, your desire to be in His Word will grow explosively!
The Final Word
Let’s bring this all back around. If you don’t want the Bible to be boring to you, the solution is fairly simple.
1) Stop filling your mind with valueless media designed to capture and hold your emotions in an addictive cycle.
2) Read the Bible with the intention of encountering God. When you go to read the Bible ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you. Read the Bible every day. Use a method when reading the Bible to stay engaged. And allow your prayer life to enhance your communication with the Lord.
My dear friends. God never intended for the reading of His Word to become a chore, a duty, or an obligation to be checked off on a to-do list. No, He intends to use it to guide you, to lead you, and through it to show His love to you.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
-Psalm 119:105 ESV
Take the time to be with Him in His Word. Do so with reverence and expectation. Make it a sacred time, unlike any other time in your day. Treat it as an opportunity to meet your best Friend, who is also the God of the Universe.
Love you Jesus follower!
-Troy
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